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I am planning on getting some jars of mycelium solutions going and was wondering, would you recommend the various honey water teks over simple malt extract solution methods? Does malt extract powder work better than regular honey?

Light malt extract works wonders, much better than honey or dextrose water. When mixing up your solution, you need to add just a TINY bit of malt powder, maybe 1/8th tsp to 8oz of water. Too much will actually slow growth.

I'll relay this info to my friend, and maybe he'll try malt again. I vaguely remember seeing in TMC or something, a reference to the ideal concentration of Malt extract to water. If i remember correctly it was 1 or 2%. I assumed this was by weight, but now thinking about it, it probably meant by volume. Either way i can't understand how this would lead to my friends jars always contam'ing. I'll have him try it again though!

Just two words more...
Honey is known to contain some antibacterial substances, so it is possible that its solution is better medium for beginner. Mycelium grows slower, but you have lower contamination probability.

--------------------There's a thin line between sanity and insanity... and I just snorted it.

I'm thinking of making lite malt extract out of myc from a jar that colonized very fast. I'll probably mix the malt with water and h2o2 and then pressure cook my jar for about 20 minutes. I'm thinking of tossing in the myc into the solution when I inoculate other jars with a g2g spawn of the same mother jar. Then I'll incubate them all for later. Does this sound like a decent idea?

are there any cheap antibiotical routes other than the small percentage in honey, which varies by the way depending on the source of the pollen? like maybe some over the fcounter animal anitbiotics that may reduce this risk significantly.

on another note, ive noticed that the karo contreversy is endless. maybe it is time we unite and do some serious testing pm me if anyone is interested in setting up an experimental co op and sharing the work load. of coarse their would have to be strict rules for data keeping and lab managing but i am up for it if anyone else is. just a thought.

--------------------why are there so many more horses asses than there are horses?

Quote:Shroomzilla said:Light malt extract works wonders, much better than honey or dextrose water. When mixing up your solution, you need to add just a TINY bit of malt powder, maybe 1/8th tsp to 8oz of water. Too much will actually slow growth.<br><br><br><br>

I've been using 1 tbsp per pint with mixed results (tho I'm not a very good cultivator by any means). More sugars in a liquid can slow growth? I was going to try a higher percentage of nutrients (karo) this next time. On a related topic, should one swirl once daily or just leave it be untouched until growth is seen? Thanks very much.

Maybe I just dont understand but why even make liquid mycelium cultures?? My friend has always just used the mycelium shake trick(transfer a SMALL portion of grain from a colonized jar, add in sterile water from a syringe, shake hard for a few minutes, extract the water using the syringe, and store/inoculate) It works wonders, super fast colonization of jars, and no need to actually risk contams while growing in liquids...

yes mycelium does grow slower in a lower nutrient environment .The more nutrients you add the myc will branch alot and grow very thick but it will grow slowly and if there are less nutrients the less it will branch and grow alot quicker .

Quote:shroomeatindude said:I vaguely remember seeing in TMC or something, a reference to the ideal concentration of Malt extract to water. If i remember correctly it was 1 or 2%. I assumed this was by weight, but now thinking about it, it probably meant by volume.

The common recipe for liquid culture calls for around a 2% concentration of malt by weight (basically they are agar recipes without the agar). Since 1ml of water weighs 1 gram, it is easy to figure out concentrations. The same thing tried by volume would depend upon the final granule size of the malt sugar you are using, and would be highly variable...

The liquid culture recipe in GGMM for wood decomposers calls for a 4% malt sugar concentration (seems a bit high to me)...

Quote:shroomeatindude said:I vaguely remember seeing in TMC or something, a reference to the ideal concentration of Malt extract to water. If i remember correctly it was 1 or 2%. I assumed this was by weight, but now thinking about it, it probably meant by volume.

The common recipe for liquid culture calls for around a 2% concentration of malt by weight (basically they are agar recipes without the agar). Since 1ml of water weighs 1 gram, it is easy to figure out concentrations. The same thing tried by volume would depend upon the final granule size of the malt sugar you are using, and would be highly variable...

The liquid culture recipe in GGMM for wood decomposers calls for a 4% malt sugar concentration (seems a bit high to me)...

interesting, my studies concluded that 4% was optimal for cubensis mycelia. studies were conducted with honey only, tho. i've only used malt for agar mixes.

Frog had jars of mexicana going for stones , but forgot to do any transfers for a back-up when he finally got down to business. He did have one jar though that he forgot to clean when he was done and some of grass was left inside on the walls of the jar. Using honey (boiled then strained through coffee filter) at roughly 2-3 table spoons per quart of water and PCing for 13 minutes in 1/2 pint jars , he has found there is no end to viable biomass in liquid culture. It is clean too. He will swear by the honey tek. Even if you forget to boil then filter there is no problem. Honey is the way to go.